with respect, I think too much money is currently being spent on exploring outer space beyond Planet Earth. It is a research thing, and right now, just my opinion, there are other priorities on this planet.

it is a very complex issue though, how to allocate money........
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This is the International Year of Astronomy 2009.

I've really enjoyed the Mahalo science answers. The interesting topics for me have been Black Holes, Saturn, Galactic Core, Sun Corona, Fusion, Dark energy and matter, Einstein lens, quantum particles.

Hopefully more University students will join Mahalo and start discussing the interesting topics in astronomy.

http://www.ted.com/talks/david_deutsch_on_our_place_in_the_cosmos.html
David Deutsch on our place in the cosmos (Oxford)

1. The Planet earth is uniquely suited to sustain life and our creation
2. The earth is friendly to life and outside earth atmosphere - the external is hostile
3. Is earth a typical place in the Universe? No
4. A typical place in the Universe is nowhere near a galaxy. 100,000 light years is not a typical place. To go typical go a 1,000 times as far. A typical place in intergalactic space is dark and cold. The Universe is big and dark.
Intergalactic space is cold and the vacuum is 1 million times less dense.
5. On our earth, we are creating knowledge.
6. Billions of light years away; a gravitational black hole existed at the center of our universe; the mass collapsed on itself, a quasar; light of a trillion suns; jets were eject outward.
7. Faithfulness of casual structure is the growth of knowledge. The earth is a hub contains structure of the "whole of the rest".
8. Earth has three important components of knowledge growth are: matter, energy, and evidence. The earth's location is saturated with matter, energy and evidence. Intergalactic space is large with matter and hydrogen and has the components of knowledge, open end stream of explanations. The limiting factor is knowledge at the hub.
9. We can survive or fail to survive. The key is discovering the knowledge in time. Knowledge is obtainable because of our relationship with laws of physics.
10. We need a stance of problem fixing. We need to know what to fix.
Source(s):
http://www.astronomy2009.org/

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